Edward John arrived fashionably late on Tuesday 9th May at 2.00pm exactly (Brisbane time). 4 day over and 5 days after my show, ds1 woke up at 12.45am and whilst dh went to settle him, I had a rather unpleasant contraction! And 5 minutes later another... 2 hours later I rang the hospital who told me to come in. It all progressed pretty quickly, and by 9am I was 7cm and coping pretty well on gas and air. The midwife told me afterwards she thought I would be done and dusted by 10.30am, and I was pretty confident at that stage of managing with nothing stronger too. But it all came to a grinding halt and 2 hours later I hadn't progressed and was getting tired (not to mention increasingly unable to cope with the pain) the midwife suggested a tiny bit of the drip would be all I would need to progress and be done. I was starting to think I needed an epidural, and knew i couldn't handle the drip without it. I hung on for another hour with no progress and was crawling the walls. A lovely man with a big needle made my day, and the drip did its job. I was ready to push an hour later and I could feel the contractions enough to push and felt him being born (painlessly!). I was overjoyed to have another boy, and to have done so much on my own. It was such a lovely experience compared to ds1's birth, which I was desperately hoping for.
We came home from hospital today (standard length to stay in over here) and we are (so far) doing ok. Breastfeeding going better than with ds1 (though bloody sore nipples) and I am feeling pretty good. A couple of stitches because he had his hand up to his face, but that's all. Ds1 is very protective, and its gorgeous to watch them together.
Oh and I am so bloody glad not to be pregnant anymore (and to have avoided induction) - bring on the champagne!